This Kind of Foreer

Hallie Foster is coming home and she couldn’t be less thrilled about it.  After years building a life in the city, returning to Kip Island feels like stepping backward.  But she needs a job, a reset, a plan.  What she doesn’t need is running into her former best friend’s brother… the one whose heart she broke ten years ago.

Gabe Bowman has spent his life living in someone else’s shadow.  First his brother’s, now the quiet expectations of a small town that knows him as the dependable firefighter, devoted father, and steady son. He’s built a good life.  A safe one.  But when the only woman he’s ever loved walks back into town, all the choices he’s made suddenly feel less certain.

When Hallie finds herself without a place to stay, Gabe offers up his guesthouse.  Temporary.  Practical. Harmless.

Except nothing about being near each other feels harmless.

Despite Hallie’s determination to keep her distance, she’s drawn to Gabe and to the little girl who has his eyes and her whole heart wrapped around his finger.  Falling back into rhythm with him feels dangerously easy, like no time has passed at all.

Then a rumor sweeps through Kip Island, and friendship alone is no longer enough to quiet the gossip.  So they strike a deal: a temporary engagement.  Hallie needs a fiancé to prove something to her estranged father, and Gabe would do just about anything to make her smile again.

But the trouble with pretending to be in love?

Eventually, you have to decide whether you’re fooling everyone else... or just yourselves.